Alerts In Effect

Contact Us

Explore This Park

The President's House Site

The President's House Site tells the story of the paradox of liberty and enslavement in one home - and in a nation.

NPS photo. Photograph by Joseph E.B. Elliott.

In the 1790s, at the President's House location at Sixth and Market Streets, Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and conducted their executive branch business. Washington brought some of his enslaved Africans to this site and they lived and toiled with other members of his household during the years that our first president was guiding the experimental development of the young nation toward modern, republican government.

President George Washington called the elegant three story brick mansion "the best single house in the city." Both Presidents Washington (1790–1797) and John Adams (1797–1800) lived and worked in this house, which was rented from the financier Robert Morris. Washington's large household, including enslaved African descendents, contrasted with Adams' small household. Adams never owned slaves.

The President's house in the 1790s was a mirror of the young republic, reflecting both the ideals and contradictions of the new nation. The house stood in the shadow of Independence Hall, where the words "All men are created equal" and "We the People" were adopted, but they did not apply to all who lived in the new United States of America.